Deck 20: Counseling Outcome Research: Does Counseling Work

Question 1

_____ is the degree to which an individual client improves after treatment.

A) Treatment integrity
B) Statistical significance
C) Clinical significance
D) Treatment fidelity

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Which of the following methodological issues must a researcher undertaking an outcome study address?

A) Determining the inclusion and exclusion criteria for participants
B) Ruling out the existence of causal relationship among variables
C) Testing theoretical conjectures
D) Suggesting possible causal connection among variables

Answer 2

A

Question 3

According to Lambert and Hill (1994), a well-designed outcome study can achieve statistically significant differences between treatment groups only by producing real-life differences in enhanced functioning.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

In a treatment package strategy, ideally, the only difference between the two conditions being compared is the counselor.

Question 5

The most effective way to test the effectiveness of a treatment in psychotherapy is to utilize double-blinded designs.

Question 6

Outcome research is predominantly conducted using true experimental or quasi-experimental designs.

Question 7

Based on reanalyses of existing data sets and analyses of outcomes in practice settings, it appears that between 3% and 8% of the variance in treatment outcome is due to _____.

A) therapists
B) the use of pharmacotherapy
C) clients
D) the types of issues being treated

Question 8

The treatment manuals contain precise specification of the experimental treatment, but they still do not guarantee that a treatment in any particular study is delivered as the researcher intended.

Question 9

The steps to develop and deploy an adequately valid treatment in a study includes specifying the treatment, training the therapists to adequately deliver the treatment, and checking whether the treatment was delivered as intended. The degree to which these steps are completed successfully is often termed as _____.

A) clinical significance
B) treatment integrity
C) treatment modules
D) evidence-based treatment effects

Question 10

In the context of parametric strategy, the term parameter refers to whether or not a component of treatment is present.

Question 11

The measurement of client functioning exclusively at pretest and posttest involves investigating therapeutic effects when multiple measurements across the course of therapy are collected.

Question 12

Identify the simplest, and logically defensible method, for measuring the outcome of any of the research designs.

A) Use only the posttest measure and perform some type of analysis of variance on these measures to test the hypothesis that the groups vary on the posttest.
B) Use multiple analyses of variance with repeated measures including both pretest and posttest scores.
C) Use path analysis utilizing moderating and/or mediating variables.
D) Use simple tests to assess changes from pretest to posttest.

Question 13

A score greater than one on the reliable change index indicates that there was more change from pretest to posttest than the measurement error in the instrument.

Question 14

The most stringent method to measure client progress in any intervention is to:

A) rely on pretest and posttest analyses.
B) obtain baseline data prior to treatment.
C) utilize instruments specific to the client population being studied.
D) collect data over time.

Question 15

Outcome research attempts to address the question of counseling efficacy by comparing a treatment group to a control group or by comparing different treatments.

Question 16

The _____ is used to determine whether adding some component to treatment already demonstrably shown to be effective adds to the benefits of the treatment.

A) dismantling strategy
B) comparative outcome strategy
C) parametric strategy
D) additive strategy

Question 17

When a researcher wants to examine the relative effectiveness of treatments for various types of clients, settings, or contexts in order to analyze which treatments work with which types of clients, they can utilize:

A) the parametric strategy.
B) the common factor control group design.
C) the moderation design.
D) the dismantling strategy.

Question 18

A treatment manual, according to Luborsky and Barber (1993), contains a description of the principles and techniques that characterize a particular treatment.

Question 19

In which of the following outcome research strategies does a researcher compare a treatment, in its entirety, to some control condition, usually a condition where the participants do not receive any treatment?

A) The dismantling strategy
B) The parametric strategy
C) The treatment package strategy
D) The common factor control group design

Question 20

In which of the following outcome research strategies does a researcher compare two or more treatments that differ in the quantity of a particular treatment component?

A) The parametric strategy
B) The dismantling strategy
C) The treatment package strategy
D) The additive strategy